⁍ Europe has moved back to being an epicentre of the global pandemic.

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⁍ Pandemic has so far seen more than 44 million infections and 1.1 million deaths worldwide.

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⁍ Germany and France have imposed controls almost as strict as the lockdowns of the first phase of the crisis in March and April.

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⁍ Britain, the country with the largest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, said it would stick with a system of local lockdowns.

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– Pandemic H1N1 has returned to being Europe’s dominant disease, with the number of confirmed cases up from 7 million in just 14 days to 9 million in just 14 days, a World Health Organization official tells Reuters. Deaths rose by 32% across the region last week, he says. But modeling shows that wearing masks—at a rate of 95%—may save up to 266,000 lives by Feb. 1 across WHO’s 53 European member states. France and Germany have imposed controls almost as strict as the lockdowns of the first phase of the crisis in March and April, shutting bars and restaurants and restricting movement, while allowing schools and most businesses to remain open. But Britain, the country with the largest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, said it would stick with a system of local lockdowns despite a new study which showed cases in England doubling every nine days. “The judgement of the government today is that a blanket national lockdown is not appropriate, would do more harm than good,’ Housing Minister Robert Jenrick told Times Radio. Germany has set aside some $11 billion to help small businesses hit by the new measures, but the country’s economy minister says the country is not experiencing an industrial collapse as it did in the initial phase of the pandemic. “(the economy) is so strong that we can avoid sliding into a long period of recession,” he says. He adds output will not return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2022.